Mythical Detective Loki Ragnarok Volume 1 (DVD) - Anime Reviews


	Number of Episodes 4 Language Options English/Japanese/English Subtitles Released by ADV Films Extras - Interview with the Japanese Voice Actors - Character Art Gallery - Reverse Cover Art
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Mythical Detective Loki Ragnarok Volume 1 (DVD)

Caged inside a little boy’s body and banished to Earth by the almighty Odin, the still-proud-and-powerful Loki now runs the Enjaku Detective Agency, joined by his trusted assistant Yamino and a beautiful (but accident prone) high school girl named Mayura, Loki earns a living probing the darkest corners of the paranormal, the occult, and the otherwise peculiar. And yet the one metaphysical mystery that involves him directly remains unsolved: what has he done to be exiled to Earth? How can he return to Asgard? Why do the other Norse Gods want him dead?

Join in the adventures as our mystery trio take on hair-raising hauntings, possessed dolls, vengeful birds of prey, and penny-pinching deities in the first phenomenal volume of Mythical Detective Loki Ragnarok.

It’s not every series that can boast a roster of Asgardian gods, especially solving Scooby-Doo mysteries! Well.. except their opponents aren’t old men trying to scare people off of their gold mines and are actual ghosts and night terrors. Cute character animation with occult themes is the name of the game for Mythical Detective Loki Ragnarok.

The First Night – Presenting: The Mythical Detective!

Bubbly school girl Mayura decides to spend her afternoon investigating a “supposed” haunted clock tower instead of attending her afternoon classes. She’s a definite occult and ghost otaku and doesn’t think anything of running off for her new caper. A search of the house turns up an interesting find – a talking doll that can float! Instead of being terrified of the object, she sees only potential and decides to take it home. Excited with her new find, she is calling her friends to come and check it out; her father comes home (he’s a Shinto-priest specializing in exorcisms) and he gets a serious case of bad mojo from the now-inert doll. Mayura attention is focused on the phone, and she turns around to see a black cat grab the doll and jump out of her room through an open window.

After a search for the cat proves pointless, she decides to go to the Enjaku Detective Agency where she’s enamored with the Bishonen-beauty of Yamino then stunned with the height of Loki. His intellect belies his small stature, but she cannot get over his apparent age (and she treats him as such)… so he’s forced to toss her out. However, he senses an evil aura, so he summons Yamino and the pair are going to go search for it (using Yamino’s new ghost divining rods no less). Their investigation seems to lead to a dead end, and the pair end up at the same abandoned clock tower – where Mayura is now searching for the doll. Loki goes up to talk to Mayura again about the doll, and as the discussion starts progressing, Yaminogets a strong response on his diving rods – so the pair go screaming off in the direction. Mayura is

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annoyed to be left behind, but she hears the summons of the doll and heads towards it. The doll asks Mayura to be brought to the top level of the clock tower, and she heads off with the doll in tow.

Meanwhile, Loki and Yamino are officially on a wild-goose chase and are getting no where fast; and they draw the attention of a former maid of the manor grounds they are on. Loki learns that the family perished in a fire 20

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years ago, and learns that the doll in question belonged to the daughter… but never talked. Loki is now very suspicious of the doll and he heads back towards Mayura. The doll is now fixated on Mayura and believes her to be the master that “abandoned” her to be alone 20 years ago. Loki’s steps in to save Mayura, once the doll’s rampage turns violent and tosses a candlestick at her. Now incensed, the doll begins flinging more dangerous objects at Loki who is trying to calm it down. He’s then forced to resort to channeling the dead girl into Mayura’s body through the girl’s bracelet – and the doll’s rage subsides once she’s caressed by her master once again. The doll disappears, and Mayura follows Loki back to the Agency. She’s quite insistent on joining the agency as an assistant and won’t take no for an answer (that’s assuming of course that she was actually registering what everyone else was actually saying to her).

The Second Night: The Allies of Justice Are Totally Broke?

The episode ends with a would-be purse snatcher running into some stiff competition. A champion carrying a bokken, stops the theft and returns the purse… and returns to his duties at a ramen cart? Anyways, forward to the next day and Yamino is helping out Mayura at her school to try and draw new members to the Mystery Club at school with a Yakisoba cookout – but it doesn’t appear to be working well. They decide to check out a large group collecting at a Takoyaki booth (he needs the part-time work), being manned by the man from last night. Mayura addresses him as Narugami, and while they chat for a bit, she asks him about his bokken. Narugami refers to it as Mjolnir, and mentions that he barely has time to perform his searching.

Loki has appeared at the Mystery Club booth and has attracted a crowd himself: young girl attracted to the cute little boy. Mayura isn’t too happy about that, so she pulls him away and takes him on a tour of the campus; and she’s going to show him the Seven Wonders (mysteries) of the campus.

After annihilating the first six in short order, Loki is stumped when the seventh actually attacks – a suit of armor that targets pretty girls, rather impressive, especially when it cuts down a row of footlockers right in front of him. So Loki and company are going to investigate the school grounds at night and see what they find – typically, Mayura gets separated from the rest and runs into the inert suit of armor. It does not react until Loki calls out looking for Mayura. At that moment, it begins to swing its’ sword but it is intercepted by Narugami’s bokken. Narugami suggests that Mayura should leave such a dangerous place, but then slinks off. Loki and Yamino arrive, and Loki’s got a plan of action. He sets a trap on the roof, which draws the suit of armor to attack – but the target is not actually the pretty girl Mayura, but instead Loki. After taking away the sword from the armor, it falls to the ground limply… but Mayura picks up the sword and enters a trance. She begins attacking Loki relentlessly, and he cannot get the upper hand, but thankfully Narugami steps in to knock the sword away so Loki can destroy it. Mayura slumps unconscious, and Loki smiles knowingly at his “savior”. Yamino cannot figure out who he is, but Loki explains that Narugami is actually Thor. Narugami asks Loki for help to return to Asgard, but Loki explains that he’s been exiled and cannot figure out a way home himself.

The Third Night: The Assassin Descends!

The primary caretaker for the birds at the local zoo has come to the Detective Agency for help. The birds have become extremely aggressive and are even attacking the trainers when they try and feed them. Without any other recourse, she has come to Loki for assistance; he’s not particularly interested in the case, but before he can refuse it, Mayura has happily accepted and is excited in going to the zoo. As everyone gets ready to depart, Mayura’s father makes an appearance – he believes that Loki is the cause of Mayura’s crazy attitude lately and intends to stop this foolishness. Just as he starts into his tirade, he notices the spectral energy around Loki and becomes terrified. He cannot believe the hidden power of a small boy; especially when Loki intends to demonstrate his power by summoning a demon (and instead gets a very cute pink familiar).

At the zoo, Narugami is working yet another part-time job and while he’s on break, he speaks with the god Heimdall – who wants revenge on Loki and intends to mete it out himself. As the group investigates the aviary, Heimdall sends his hawk to hypnotize Mayura and try and get her to fall off the path they are on. Loki notices Mayura’s strange actions and grabs her before she does anything dangerous. But for now, Heimdall slinks away. That night, Mayura is visited by the caretaker again and they enter the bedroom, a swarm of birds are waiting and knock out the would-be detective. The caretaker is not happy about what is being done, but she takes the prone body back to the zoo.

Loki confronts the caretaker and Heimdall at the zoo, but as he starts, Heimdall shows the prone body of Mayura and drops her from a height. Loki is able to get a hand on her, but he isn’t strong enough to pull her to safety and the caretaker is advancing on him. As he loses his grip, his new familiar jumps into action to save Mayura and he can now dispel the mind control that Heimdall has set up on the caretaker. The god sneaks away from the battle, and Loki takes Mayura back home. As they are about to go their separate ways, Heimdall makes another appearance – posing a friend of Loki, but Mayura is unaware of his attack earlier. Heimdall fully intends to kill Loki eventually.

The Fourth Night: My Dad’s A Great Detective?

A different style of episode for this outing – Mayura joins the rest of the team on another mission and she manages to twist her ankle in the process (although her clumsiness allows Loki the chance to defeat the specter). As Loki and Yamino carry her home, her father is particularly upset to see that she’s both late and hurt. He starts off on a lecture about her lack of focus of late and her spending a large amount of time at the detective agency. Mayura turns to Loki to help out, but instead of talking him down he instead casts a spell that allows both to go back to when Mayura’s mother passed away.

A young 4 year old Mayura is about to have her birthday, and she misses her recently deceased mother greatly. Father is trying his best to both run the temple and raise a young girl. Everyone watches as ghosts as the story unfolds, young Mayura wants to go to the Amusement Park and believes that her mother will meet her at the end of a ride (like she promised). Mayura watches and follows her father while her dad follows the young Mayura through the course of this day and both come to a better understanding of each other by the end. A cute and touching episode.

All in all Mythical Detective Loki Ragnarok was a little too saccharine for my personal tastes, but I did like the character designs and art style of the show. For people liking a light and fluffy anime, this is definitely up their alley.

- Tazman

(December 5, 2005)

"What do you see here Chris?"

"Uh, 2 D's and an F?"

- Mrs. Lockheart & Chris (Family Guy)

Anime: Argentosoma Vol. 1 (DVD)


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